Microsoft: Storage unification still somewhere out there
Microsoft customers are still in search of that elusive goal: a single, unified storage system to simplify the deployment and management of Microsoft's enterprise wares. And Microsoft officials are still promising it will happen (as they have for years) but not offering any kind of delivery timetable.
During a question-and-answer session with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates at Microsoft's annual SharePoint Conference in Seattle on March 3, a couple of attendees asked about Microsoft's plans to unify the underlying storage systems across Microsoft's SQL Server database and SharePoint Server, its collaboration and search-server product.
Microsoft execs have said repeatedly over the past decade that some day the company would unify the storage systems underlying its various enterprise wares, especially its Exchange Server e-mail and SQL Server products.
Gates said that Microsoft had just held a "big engineering offsite" meeting last Friday, where the importance of storage unification was a hot topic, he said.
Gates told SharePoint Conference attendees Monday that Microsoft is well-aware that storage unification would allow users to simplify the programming, administration and management of its enterprise products. He said that Microsoft is working towards more closely aligning SQL Server's tables and SharePoint's lists with the next versions of each product (SQL Server 2008 and Office SharePoint Server 14).
SharePoint, from its inception, has been built on top of SQL Server, Gates said. Microsoft is working to allow And other Microsoft applications, like Dynamics CRM, are SQL Server-based, too. Microsoft is moving toward making Active Directory "more of a meta-directory based on SQL Server," as well, he said. However, Exchange still has its own database that uses a different store than SQL Server, Gates admitted.
"Out in the future, Exchange will be built on SQL," Gates said again on March 3. But still no firm timetable or delivery vehicle was mentioned.
On the services side of the Microsoft house, storage unification has been a push from the get-go. Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Contacts, Windows Live Spaces, Xbox Live, CRM Live, Office Live and a number of other Live services use the same Webstore that runs on SQL Server. On the software side of the house, however, aligning these stores has proven a lot more challenging, it seems.
How much of an issue is it for your organization that Microsoft still is supporting different underlying storage systems in its key enterprise products?